Carp Anglers Group
PO Box 69, Groveland, IL 61535 USA
Call us at 309-387-2277 (CARP)
Call us at 309-387-2277 (CARP)
Meanwhile Phil Saunders arrived and went about carving out a swim downstream from the beach in uncharted waters. His bowsaw was red hot by the time he was done. This proved to be a hot swim as Phil went on to bank 20 or so carp by the time he pulled out on Saturday at dusk.
I sat around jawing for a couple of hours and during that time no carp were landed but they were crashing in the swim so it was just a matter of time before everyone had a result. I trundled on down to the Tree Swim and had a 15 pound common in short order. Two hours later I still tallied only one so I pulled in the gear and went down to the beach to hear all sorts of excuses as to why they still had only one on the bank.
At 11 pm Fran had a carp and had just landed it when he was in again to tiger nuts. The day bite was spotty at best and the evening went even slower. Cherry picking is what I call it and the big hit did not come until 3am. I had landed 2 carp since 5pm the previous day but when they came at 3am I landed six carp and a catfish in three hours with a 22 and 24+ and a 12 pound mirror carp as well.
When I got to the " Pier Swim " at 4:30 am on Saturday Fran was just setting up at the Tree. The boys on the beach had landed a few during the night and carp were crashing about in the early morning light on a flat calm Hudson river. I just got both rods set when the first went off and I promptly dropped the fish. A few minutes later I was in again and landed my first official carp of the fish in.
The early bite was good and by 9pm I had five on the bank to 24 pounds and the beach lads were catching as well with Paul nabbing a personal best at 22+ pounds. Mike had a 24 pounder and Ed a 20 as well.
Around 11am Derrick Wadman arrived and set up on the " 2nd Pier " an proceeded to catch a 21 pounder in a few minutes. He manged to land five carp and a 5 pound catfish before departing at 7pm. During that time he was " washed " by a huge oceanliner that ignored the no wake zone and almost lost a rod to a carp when he neglected to flip the baitrunner on.
Nigel and Dave DePeau came in around noon and camped on the " Landing " and were into carp almost instantly. Irwin Hutchinson joined them a few hours later and caught four carp before he took off around dusk slower but a few fish kept coming out.
The lads at the Landing awoke to find their bait bucket floating in mid river as the very high tide caught them while they slept. Lines went in and the carp began biting again. The tally for the entire fish in was perhaps 100-120 carp on the bank with 15 or so of these being 20 pounds or larger. Three mirror carp were landed also. All anglers save one, caught at least one 20 pound carp and although the numbers were not what we expected I suppose we can't complain too much since the weather was perfect and the predicted rain did not materialize.
Carpist